My new best Frenemy

The bane of my existence and my favorite recent addition.

I give you the beast:

Duh-Duh-DUUUUUUH!!
(Please excuse the half carpeted floor.  One day we will finish finishing the basement and put real flooring down.  Though I am convinced it may not be worth the investment until the kids are past the uber-messy stage....)

Thanks to this beautiful contraption I was able to knock off 3 1/2 miles before the kids went to school.

I have never run on a treadmill before this.  Well, technically I have-trying out shoes at running stores, and test-running the ones we looked at once we decided we were going to bring one home.  But anything longer than a few minutes...nope.

Thanks to someone in a rush to free up their spare bedroom for a new baby we were able to pick this baby up for a fraction of the cost of everything else we had looked at.  Perfect price, perfect timing.

I was so excited the first time I jumped on for a run.  All those people who complain about the "dreadmill"-bah!  Just a bunch of whiners!  This will be fun! It will be great!

Yeah, that lasted about 3 minutes.

Oh my word, treadmill running is hard!  No wonder people hate running!
It was a fight to get through 2 miles.
I got off feeling discouraged and frustrated and wondering why I ever thought running was a good idea.

As I stared ahead at the walls for 20 minutes, all I could think was "They say taupe is very soothing".  Not so much.  But I was glad that there is not longer a mirror at the end of the hall in front of the treadmill so I didn't have to watch myself.
Yes, there is a tv down there, but I find that I drift to the right when I watch anything while I'm running.  Considering my history of being one of the least coordinated people in the world, I do not need any more fuel for a treadmill accident.

But-
We've had some better moments since then, the beast and I.
(apparently my treadmill is named "The Beast")

This morning I think I finally found my groove.
Mile 1 was awful.  And then I had to go wrap my knee and make sure kids were actually getting ready for school.  But with my knee wrapped, and my determination back in place (along with a desire to avoid a grumpy preteen who is even less of a morning person than I am), I hopped back on.  And the next 2.5 miles were great.
Fabulous.
Wonderful.
Really really sweaty and warm, but definitely a much better option than not running at all!

Good enough that I'm hoping to get in another couple of miles tonight.

I realized that I just can't run my normal pace on the treadmill for now.  That's ok.  If a little slower makes it doable, it is totally worth it.  I'll just save my "speed" for when I'm out really running.

The good news is that I should be able to actually get OUT to run on Saturday.  Aaron is slowly gaining more coherence and functionality, almost to the point where I'd trust leaving him here with all the kids and not worry about him wandering around in a drug-induced stupor while I'm gone.  He still has just one arm, and will be in the sling for another 4 weeks, but if we work things right, I can get the baby napping or safely placed with a friend and hit the trail for an hour.

Which is a good thing, because today is 10 days till the 10K.